Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/58

 ing, abbreviation, or punctuation, or in the use of italic. Yet the compositor is often requested to amend the grosser faults of an illiterate or careless writer. It is not possible here to define where the amendment should begin or end. Faults of writing often convey to the reader a clearer notion of the style and mental status of the writer than can be gathered from his words properly rendered. Abbreviations of honorary titles, as, , , and , are usually put in capitals when they are appended to a name in the text composed almost entirety of lower-case letters. When the abbreviations of many titles are added to the name, as in

the absurdity of capitalizing the abbreviations of titles and making them more prominent than the name becomes painfully conspicuous. Despite the absurdity, this use of capitals for abbreviated titles in the text is made imperative in many offices. When the small capitals of the text letter have a little more prominence than the lower-case letters (which they seldom have), the small capitals will be found a more pleasing substitute.

In the title-pages of books a contrary practice prevails. When the name of the author has many letters, and the honorary titles are many, these honorary titles are sometimes made smaller than the name by being put in small capitals. This